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02/01/2014

Sharing my love of Dandelions

Happy 2014!!!

Last year, in January I wrote a post about dandelions, things-to-do-with-dandelions well it was actually a round up of links to recipes and ideas of how to use dandelions. It has been my most popular post ever!! I was and still am surprised that dandelions are so popular or have become more so of late. I see them popping up everywhere !

When I first started becoming interested in wildcrafting/foraging I was really chuffed and excited every time I recognized a new wild plant, especially if it had medicinal properties and it tasted good. I have always admired Hippocrates frequently quoted words"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".
Ok, so every one knows what a dandelion looks like, don't they? Can you tell the difference between a dandelion, catsear or hawksbeard? I'm just beginning to easily spot the differences now.

The only problem that I had was that I lacked ideas for how to use my wild plant discoveries and sometimes they do need creativity to make them taste good. Italians have a rich, inspirational history of incorporating wild foods into their diet, but there aren't many wild food recipe books. Italian mammas always seek to find the best, freshest, local produce that they can afford and friends or family members often make gifts of mushrooms, home-grown produce or freshly picked fruit. Food is so much more important here than it was in the UK when I lived there, although encouraged by popular chefs like Jamie Oliver, perhaps that is changing now.

Wild food is becoming more main stream, there are many more ideas, books, recipes, websites etc than there were two years ago. I think it's easier to find interesting ways of using wild plants now. My round-up of dandelion links was a way to put my favourite ideas in one place. Pinterest is a really great resource for this reason, you can save a lot of time looking for inspiration there (if you don't get distracted) pinterest.com/wildcraftvita.

Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that my dandelion post has been nominated by a group of bloggers who organize a blog hop called "wildcrafting wednesday", a place to share and find ideas for using herbs, homesteading, healthy recipes etc.

If I have contributed, in even a small way, to improving the status of this amazing but often overlooked and badly treated weed I admit that I am rather pleased. If you like dandelions and are so inclined you can click on the above button and vote for my dandelion post, you may also find something else interesting on the list, or at the host blogs linked below. There are 10 nominated posts from different bloggers. You can vote at any or all of the following blogs:

Love this site and all you do. As one who is somewhat addicted to sharing a love of dandelions, I wanted to share why you are seeing so many of them popping up, especially around facebook. It is the official flower of military brats (kids who grew up in the military many of us growing up or living in other countries. There has been some controversy over use of the term brat and thousands of us have been trying to change the perception that it is a negative into something we are proud to be called. http://www.militarybrat.com/dandelion.cfm Some history and and explanation...........Again, love this and now have more of a reason to love this weed!

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A little about me

English wild plant lover living in Italy who likes experimenting with nature.
***********DISCLAIMER*********
I am not an expert, I'm always learning.
Please consult a local expert before eating or touching wild plants.
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Unless otherwise stated, all photos are taken by myself (hoping to get better). I'm happy to share them, but please give me credit and link back.

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